


we are the protagonists of the world

by noljagolcha



Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, It's just pure fluff, M/M, Sorry to disappoint, bomin and donghyun aren't even trying to hide their relationship btw, bomin's a child actor turned actor, donghyun's a tiktoker, most characters listed are mentions HAHA, the public just never notices, theyre very uwu and very sweet together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:40:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noljagolcha/pseuds/noljagolcha
Summary: ei@donghyunluvr420oh god the Delulus are back at it againBomin and Donghyun navigate the ins and outs of revealing their relationship to the public (who just don't seem to get it).
Relationships: Choi Bomin/Kim Donghyun
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	we are the protagonists of the world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jangjoos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jangjoos/gifts), [official_kbean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/official_kbean/gifts), [wonhotteok](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonhotteok/gifts).



> basically my ode to farewell to naver's comment section
> 
> this is for herbie, ei, and kira, all of whom have tolerated my ranting about some plot for some golcha ship at some point in time  
> many thanks to ella who gave me a username for donghyun within the minute that i asked for it <3

[enter-talk] Ah, this Noona became a fan without even knowing... 

I've been watching a lot of Tiktok recently, and don't you think @dancerdonghyun99's videos are very cute and refreshing? When I watched his dance video for the first time and he winked.... ah, my heart really fluttered.... I can't be the only one, all of you agree with me, right? His videos are starting to become very popular, I even caught my mom watching one yesterday ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I heard the music and knew immediately. He’s such a hot topic these days that the broadcasting stations are picking up on him already! KBS already did a short interview with him and asked him how he can make the people watching his videos fall in love with him so easily ㅋㅋㅋ He turned so red and answered weirdly but it was so cute.... Ah, what should I do? Noona really likes Donghyun now....

post response:

[+3745][-287]

1 [+1974, -163] He's really so cute ㅜㅜㅜㅜ I heard the dance in his latest video is one he made himself... Even though he's not an idol, his looks are good and he has a lot of talent; even though you're just a Tiktoker, Kim Donghyun fighting!

2\. [+1068, -95] Uwah, I know exactly what you mean! I see my friends watching his videos a lot these days! To be honest I also watch his videos a lot....

3\. [+965, -37] I watched the interview OP mentioned and he was so awkward, but in his videos he has so much charisma ㅎㅎ reversal charm dongdongie~

4\. [+876, -12] ㅋㅋㅋㅋ OP, I’m sorry to break it to you, but that interview really makes me think he might be dating someone ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ His girlfriend is so lucky ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

From the very minute Donghyun woke up in the morning, he’d had the strangest feeling that today was going to be an odd day. 

The oddness begins as Donghyun rubs the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes and notices that the left side of the bed is suspiciously empty. Which is very, very, uncommon. In fact, it’s never actually happened before.

With bleary eyes, he pats blindly around the bedside table and grasps at his phone. He attempts to turn it on to check the time but his phone remains unresponsive and dead in his hands. This is enough to jumpstart his drowsy brain and he squints suspiciously at the screen. 

He remembers unplugging his phone last night to upload a Tiktok he’d filmed just that day and setting it on the bedside table to go to sleep since his battery was still pretty full, so unless his phone battery had mysteriously short-circuited in the night, there’s absolutely no reason for it to be dead. 

Oh well. Donghyun shrugs. He’ll just charge it at the studio. 

He spends about another minute in bed stretching out his sore limbs before crawling out of bed. It is then that he notices the next odd thing. Or well, things.

Firstly, the sun is already shining through the curtains. How he’d missed it earlier, Donghyun honestly doesn’t know at all; but it’s late enough in the day that it provides an explanation to why the blanket-hogger is suddenly up and about earlier than him. 

Secondly, there’s breakfast on the table, and although it’s not piping hot, it looks presentable. There’s even a little note attached, a small “ _Have a great morning~! ^^_ ” scribbled on it in loopy, fond handwriting.

Donghyun sits down to eat and raises his chopsticks to take a tentative nibble. The odd part comes here: it’s actually edible. Donghyun pokes through the egg on the plate. Not a single corner is charred black, it’s just the right amount of salted, and all in all, it’s a _good_ egg. 

Well, colour him surprised. 

Things only get weirder from that point onwards. Donghyun takes the bus to the studio, and the process of waiting for the bus and getting on is normal enough; only, when he gets onto the bus, the usual noise and chatter dies away abruptly as everyone turns to stare at him. 

They keep staring at his face and whispering, most notably the group of young girls huddled together in the middle of the bus, one of whom tries to discreetly take a picture of him. Her camera flash is on. It blinds him temporarily. The mortification written clearly all over her face, however, is more than enough for him to wisely choose to say nothing. 

What’s odder still is that after Donghyun alights from his bus, he walks for about a grand total of 5 minutes before he hears a sudden squeak of surprise. Curiously, he turns his head to look, and it’s another teenage girl (seriously, what is _up_ with teenage girls?).

She has her hands pressed to her mouth and her eyes are the size of dinner plates. Donghyun awkwardly adjusts the strap of his dance bag on his shoulder.

They make quick eye contact, and it’s not more than a second really; but the girl flushes an impressive shade of lobster red, colour rising rapidly from her neck all the way to her hairline in just a few seconds flat. 

She proceeds to backpedal rapidly, not breaking eye contact, and unceremoniously ducks behind a potted plant placed right beside a sidewalk in a valiant attempt at hiding herself from view.

Donghyun’s jaw almost drops. Does she think he can’t see her?

She’s still peeking her head out like a frightened ostrich, ducking it back into the greenery when she sees him still standing there, utterly and completely stunned. 

The morning has been nothing short of odd. 

Donghyun is truly beginning to think he’s cursed. 

This theory of his proves true not more than 5 minutes later, when he walks through the glass doors of his dance studio and is immediately accosted by his best friend of 7 years shoving a large camera into his face. 

“Hey, hey, hey! It’s the man of the hour, Kim Donghyun! Everybody say hi to Donghyun!” Hong Joochan, owner of world-famous Youtube channel Joobitbam, exclaims, slinging an arm around Donghyun’s shoulder to pull him in close.

Donghyun stares at the blinking red light on the camera and says a dull hello as he wonders what his life has come to. 

He would be lying if he said he weren’t at least slightly used to this by now, and simply shoves Joochan away with one hand.

“Why are you here.” He asks flatly, lightly batting at the camera lens in his face. “You don’t usually turn up unless you’re trying to rope me into featuring in another of your videos, which you hardly post, by the way.” 

“What are you talking about?” Joochan whines, moving in to invade Donghyun’s personal space and clutch at his arm. “I’ve posted every single video you’re in.”

Before Donghyun can remind him about the long, extensive list of ‘Stupid Things Hong Joochan Has Roped An Even Stupider Kim Donghyun Into’, Joochan wags his finger sternly at him. 

“That’s not why I’m here for today! Today is a Kim Donghyun special, where we document your first day of true internet fame!” Joochan swoops back in, clapping Donghyun on the back with such force he swears he hears a bone or two break. “So tell me, how does finally being popular feel?” 

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” Donghyun’s face twists into a grimace. “What internet fame?” 

Joochan is quiet for a moment, before bursting out into loud peals of laughter that ring out around the empty dance studio. “You don’t- oh everyone, this is great, he doesn’t even know-!” He bends over, slapping at his knees as his entire body is wracked with laughter. The camera in his hand shakes along with him. 

“What don’t I know?” Donghyun asks, puzzled, “Should I be knowing something? Do I even want to know?” 

Joochan’s answering grin is nothing short of frightening. “C’mere Donghyun,” Joochan croons, beckoning him over as he pulls his phone out of his pocket, “Prepare for your world to be rocked.” For added emphasis, he winks at the camera. 

And that is how Kim Donghyun finds out he’s gone viral on every social media platform known to man. 

From that point forward, Donghyun’s week only gets odder. But he supposes, it’s just one of those things that come with internet fame. 

The video in question that went viral wasn’t even anything special. It was actually just a dare that Jangjun had him do, some sort of mega mashup of the hottest K-pop hits for the month of July. It wasn’t a video Donghyun had spent a long time making, it consisted of a few takes and minor editing and that was pretty much it. But somehow, the public took to it like moths to a flame and skyrocketed him to fame overnight.

Wednesday night finds him huddled under the blankets, worrying away at his bottom lip as he scrolls through Tiktok’s comment section. 

After the fiasco that was Monday (with the whole sudden rise to internet notoriety), he’d uploaded another video at the dinner table, clutching his fork in one hand and his shirt in the other.

This next one is simpler, it’s just a quick freestyle to a heavily bass-boosted song with a wink or two thrown into the mix. Within the next minute, he’d watched in abject horror as his phone lit up with a million notifications coming through at the same moment and vibrated right off the table top, crashing onto the tiled floor before promptly running out of battery and dying. 

It had been fully charged. 

Now, after plugging in his phone and turning off all notifications, Donghyun sits scrolling through the comment section, trying to puzzle out what exactly is going on. Aside from one or two nasty comments, most of them contain encouraging messages or simply a few heart emojis in varying colours. 

From behind him, a comforting, familiar weight rests on his shoulder as he is enveloped in a back hug. “What are you doing?” 

Donghyun fumbles with his phone a bit. “How do you deal with internet fame?” He asks instead, scrolling through to a particularly odd comment that simply says ‘ _STEP ON ME DANCERDONGHYUN99-NIM._ ’ He jabs a finger at it. “Like, what do I even say to this?” 

“Just don’t say anything. You don’t have to reply to everyone, you know.” Bomin plucks the phone from Donghyun’s fingers, scrolling through the comment section.

He whistles lowly. “I don’t think it’s even possible to reply to everyone.” He points at the screen. “Look, you have like, a million comments. If you tried, I bet your thumbs would fall right off.” 

“That’s not true,” Donghyun frowns. “A thousand might be possible, but a million?” He takes the phone back from Bomin and promptly eats his own words. “Oh, there really is… a million.” 

“What did I say? This is why you’ve got to trust me, hyung. I’m more experienced in this kind of thing.” Bomin says, flashing a boyish grin at Donghyun.

So many years, and it still makes Donghyun’s traitorous heart skip a beat.

“It’s getting late, you’ve got to sleep. You have to go to the studio a little earlier tomorrow, right?” 

Donghyun squints. “Since when were you the one telling me what to do?” Nevertheless, he sets his phone down with a final glance at the ever-increasing view count on his Tiktok video and crawls into bed. 

Laughing, Bomin goes to turn off the lights. In the cozy atmosphere, he wanders slowly to their shared bed, lifts up a corner of the covers and crawls in right beside him. He rolls over onto his side to look at Donghyun, who immediately mirrors that action. Lifting a hand to caress Donghyun’s cheek, Bomin leans forward to plant a gentle kiss on his forehead. “I haven’t actually said this to you before, but congratulations on going viral.” 

“What for?” Donghyun whispers, “It’s nothing special. It’s just- going viral. You’re famous too.” 

Bomin hums as he drops his hand to rest atop Donghyun’s own, gripping it tightly. “Well, it may not be anything special, but you’re definitely something special to me.” He smooths his thumb over the back of Donghyun’s hand in circles. “I think it’s a good thing that more people are giving you the love you deserve.” 

Donghyun’s resulting flush is masked by the shroud of night that has fallen over them, but his bashfulness is hidden from no one as he rips his hand from Bomin’s grasp and smushes the heel of his hand into his face. “Don’t say these sorts of cheesy things,” he complains, turning over with a huff. 

Undeterred, Bomin only scoots closer and nuzzles his face into the back of Donghyun’s neck, securing his arms around his midsection. “Goodnight hyung,” he whispers fondly, “I love you.” Donghyun grunts out a garbled mess of words (sounding suspiciously like ‘ _I_ _love you too'_ ) as a reply, and that is that for the night. 

They fall asleep as they are, beneath the sliver of moonlight spilling through the gap in their curtains, cocooned in the warmth and safety of a home in each other's arms. 

The next morning goes by like clockwork and Donghyun is beginning to think that things have settled down a little, having lost their edge of oddness. 

He’s the first to wake up when colour is only beginning to seep into the sky, Bomin slumbering peacefully on the pillow next to him.

He makes breakfast for two, lures Bomin out of bed with the promise of pancakes and honey-sticky kisses and shoves him out of the door, ready and on time for his schedule. 

All in all, it’s a pretty normal morning. That is, until he walks into the dance studio. 

Joochan isn’t here to invade his space and take up his time with vlog filmings or simply just to hang out with him, but there are a bunch of people in neat-pressed suits, portable lighting gear and recording equipment standing by the door. The giant ‘KBS’ logo is emblazoned boldly in sky blue across every possible surface. 

Today, Donghyun decides, is not the day he even tries to figure out what KBS is doing in this small, humble studio. Today is the day he runs. So, he tries his best to sneak past them into his studio, but his Converse hightops squeak shrilly against the wood floor and this draws all of their attention to him. Someone whips out a clipboard, flips through it rapidly, then points at him and yells with fervour, “That’s him! That’s Kim Donghyun!” 

Immediately, chaos descends. 

Suddenly, he’s being pulled aside, told to sign his name on many, many forms giving his consent to be filmed, all the while the recording equipment is rapidly being set up in the background. Someone adjusts Donghyun’s collar, smacks powder onto his face (he chokes just a little bit) and shoves a microphone into his hands. The red light comes on and the cameras begin to roll.

Out of nowhere, a female host materialises beside him, in all pressed clothes and sharp eyeliner, looking the epitome of grace and beauty. “Hello everyone! This is Seo Jisoo from KBSWorld and today we’re here with the hottest new internet star, Kim Donghyun! We’ll be conducting an interview with him with all of your exclusive questions, so please stay tuned! Kim Donghyun, please greet the viewers.” 

Donghyun is left momentarily stunned from the abruptness of being thrown in front of no less than five cameras, but he quickly recovers and stutters his way through a clumsy greeting. 

The interview proceeds in similar fashion, with Seo Jisoo throwing out simple questions for him and watching him stumble and fumble his way to a coherent answer. He isn’t doing too shabby, but his answers are questionable enough that he involuntarily cringes each time he opens his mouth to speak. 

As Seo Jisoo conducts a recap of his dance career up until the present moment (there really, truly isn’t much to say. It has only been 3 days of internet stardom and non-stop notifications for Donghyun), he finds himself slowly drifting off and thinking about the million other things he’d prefer to be doing right now, like dancing or catching lunch with Bomin or filming another gaming stream with Joochan. 

“Alright, time’s running out, so we may not be able to answer everything, please forgive us!” Seo Jisoo exclaims to the camera. “No worries,” she winks straight into the lens, “I’ll definitely come back for another interview with Kim Donghyun soon! But now, for the final question.” 

Donghyun lifts his head and tries to look attentive. 

“Many people attribute your Tiktok fame to the winks and smiles you tend to perform for the camera,” Jisoo points out, “So, the fans were just wondering, how do you find the courage within yourself to do it.” 

“Ah,” Donghyun says, mind’s eye conjuring up the memory of the night before, bringing forth the memory of a whispered ‘ _You’re definitely something special to me_ ,’ and he flushes a bright red. “Ah well, you see- I don’t really- I don’t do much? It all just comes naturally.” 

Donghyun’s mind supplies him with the phantom touch of Bomin’s callouses on his arms as he is gathered into a hug, Bomin’s proud and beaming smile which he gets in return for grinning back at him. 

“Natural instinct as it is, I actually do have a process for this,” He volunteers awkwardly. He wrings his fingers on both hands and tries his best not to sweat too hard. “What I do is that I think of the person who I really love and imagine their face behind the camera, almost as if I’m performing for them. I really think that’s the secret to smiling and winking at the camera without feeling shy.” 

"The person you love?" Jisoo parrots. "Kim Donghyun-ssi, is there possibly... someone in your life right now?" 

"Ah, I- maybe- what I meant to say was- ah, I just meant that you look at someone who's important to you, who you care for a lot is all." He laughs awkwardly and prays for Jisoo to accept his shoddy, messy answer as it is. 

Seo Jisoo oohs and ahhs appropriately, before thanking Donghyun for his time. She ends off by wishing Donghyun well, hinting that she hopes his relationship continues strong, which he awkwardly thanks her for. Jisoo promises that she and her post-production team will work tirelessly to put forth an interview worth watching.

They turn out to be true to their word. 

If not for the content, the video is very much worth watching due to the mystery of who the up-and-rising Tiktok star of the likes of Donghyun is dating at this current moment. With this juicy tidbit of news, the other broadcasting companies jump onto it to generate new articles. 

By the evening, Donghyun’s face is on national TV the next day as they play the video in almost every single broadcasting station available and willing to cover the story (pretty much all of them), and roughly about half of his followers begin to privately message him about the possibility that he’s dating someone. They form hundreds of theories as to who it could possibly be, but most end up skipping right past Bomin. Which Donghyun honestly doesn’t really understand.

Bomin is very amused by the entire situation.

Over dinner, he pokes fun at Donghyun’s flushed cheeks in the interview as he stuttered through his answers to the questions abruptly thrown at him and giggles over Donghyun's shy demeanour whenever he clearly begins to think of Bomin.

"Hyung, there's no need to be embarrassed," he teases, "There's nothing wrong with thinking of me all the time. Even when you're making a Tiktok. In fact, I'm quite honoured to be someone who's important and cared for by you."

Donghyun throws a fork at him. It sails right over his head and clatters to the floor. Despite that, Bomin's smile does not waver, nor does it fall, he simply leans forward to offer his congratulations and a chaste kiss. 

In the end, Donghyun decides to leave the issue like Bomin suggested (he does, in fact have much more experience with internet fame) and eventually, the mystery itself mellows out and plateaus, with most quickly losing interest and forgetting about the KBS interview as they get distracted by Donghyun landing more and more CF gigs as well as uploaded new Tiktok dance covers/videos. 

Donghyun never does get around to replying to the fans’ questions about his significant other.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to everyone who let me use your @ in the process of this; to those whose @s didn't make it/don't represent them too well, i'm sorry i just had to make it fit the narrative ; 3;  
> nevertheless, i hope you all enjoy it! once again, leave a comment (pls, they really make my day) and you can hit me up at @noljagolcha on twitter if you want!!!!
> 
> whoever gets the title reference will get honey stars from me someday somehow


End file.
